today i'm so excited because i will share with you my first step on how and what we prepare for our
sephardic rosh Hashanah as my daughters and i will bring you shop at Walmart and show you what eight
food we eat to have a great jewish new year what we're looking for when we pick them as well as
why we eat them to have a great new year i will also share what we avoid to eat on rosh Hashanah
as well as a little preview in the next video i will bring you along as i prepare all four meals
for the two days of rosh Hashanah how i shape my round Challah and what will be my amazing rosh
Hashanah desserts for this year so do not forget to subscribe and hit that notification bell not
to miss anything if you're new here hi my name is Sara Malka and on my channel i share all facets of
my orthodox sephardic jewish life as a full-time working mom with small kiddos so don't forget to
leave this video a big thumbs up let me put on a pretty tichel (headscarf) and let's jump into it
after driving for 20 minutes to the next city we arrive at our local Walmart the first food
we see from our Rosh Hashanah list after taking our time to wash our hands and pass
everything that is on special on our left we see the apples and as you probably know
the apples are a key symbol or Siman of our celebration for the jewish new year
which we call our rosh Hashanah seder the girls will look at many many apples
to choose the most beautiful one they will put back any apple with holes or brown spots
i love showing my children girls and boys alike how to choose the best fruits and
vegetables i think it is a tool to use for life what do you think the apples or tapuach
in Hebrew refers when Yaakov or jacob entered his father's tent to receive the blessings
and Itzhak or Isaac commented that the fragrance of the garden of eden entered
together with Yaakov and it had the scent of an apple orchard on rosh Hashanah we pray that we too
should ultimately receive blessings just as Yaakov did hence eating the apple we will
dip the apple in the honey and i will explain the significance of the honey a bit later in the video
my family uses red apples on rosh Hashanah but my husband's side of the family to honor
the tradition of eating an apple on rosh Hashanah will take yellow apples and of course to honor my
husband's side and my side we're going to take the two kinds of apples for our second food or item
on our Rosh Hashana say their list we will need some pomegranate when we choose our
pomegranate we look for fruits that are hard on the outside and it feels heavy for their size
we always pass on any that have cracks or bruises at its surface we use the proper grenade in our
seder because by eating the pomegranate we express our wish for a year filled with as many merits
as a pomegranate has seeds as a super bonus stay tuned until the end of the video where my friend
will show you how to open your pomegranate the right way not to make a mess for the third item
on our list we're gonna go towards the leafy greens we're looking for swiss chard but i can
only see kale which is an amazing vegetable but i did not find a way to feed my kiddos kale
maybe you have a recipe that would help me make my children like kale
please let me know in the comments below finally finally i see the swiss chard hidden in the back
because swiss chard is so heavily infested with bugs i really have to take my time to inspect
every bunch because as you know when we eat kosher we cannot eat bugs while i'm looking for the right
one i will explain to you why we eat swiss chard we eat swiss chards because swiss chard is silka
in aramaic and it relates to the hebrew word siluk meaning removal we use swiss chard to invoke the
blessing that our enemies haters and those who wish evil upon us shall be removed finally after
looking through every single bunch of swiss chard i find one thank G.od that looks the best
the item number four on our list to have a great new year are leeks when i choose them they should
be straight and firm with white necks and dark green leaves i also make sure i do not see any
insects on their surface we eat leeks because in aramaic karti means leek and it is similar to the
hebrew word kara or karet which means to tear or destroy we eat leaks in hope that our internal and
external enemies will be torn out so that we can live in peace and while we're eating the leak we
pray that god decimates the evil forces we created through our sins i always take two or three leaks
and i will make leek soup with what i have not used for Rosh Hashanah a side note our ashkenazi
brothers would use beet instead of swiss chard in their seder but we do not have this custom
i will still take some beets as i will use them to make salads for Rosh Hashanah
to choose the beets i will make sure they feel heavy for their size and they are firm with smooth
skin without any nicks or cuts and if they have holes like this one i will put them back i will
take about 10 as i do not use them in the seder of Rosh Hashanah but i will use them as salads
maybe you're asking yourself why do we take so much time to choose every item well we take our
time to choose the symbolic food of our holiday of Rosh Hashanah because our sages say that the more
effort we put to fulfill a commitment the more reward we can reap so the girls and i really take
our time to choose the best produce the next food on our list or item number five will be squash
or gourds because i'm at Walmart i will take some butternut squash and some acorn squash we take
squash or gourds because the word gourd found in the talmud is kara and it sounds both like
the words for read / proclaimed and the word for tear up (destroy) by eating words at our seder
we pray that the decree of our sentence be torn up and may our merits be proclaimed before G.od
we also need some black eyed peas or sesame seeds but we cannot find any in the grain section maybe
in the dry goods section we're going to be more lucky and we will be able to find some
we might not have found yet the sesame seeds but we found some grape juice or
yayin which is always part of every of our jewish holidays we have a few bottles of
wine and grape juice at home (Thank G.od) but as we are blessed with many many guests
over Rosh Hashanah and the following holidays we just want to take a few bottles extra just in case
on a side note not only are there things that we should eat on Rosh Hashanah but other things
should be avoided like nuts as they bring poor omens for the new year G.od forbid
this is because the gematria or numerical value of the hebrew word egoz is the same as
the numerical value for the word chet or sin this is why many families will abstain of having nuts
on their seder (celebration) on Rosh Hashanah and some like us will abstain of having
red grapes we are also careful not to eat bitter or vinegary food on Rosh Hashanah but rather to
eat sweet food for a sweet new year the food number six on our Rosh Hashanah list are dates
there are many types of dates but we are looking for medjool dates that
are the sweetest we find this kind which seems okay and thank god they are kosher and because we
haven't been so lucky with our black-eyed peas and sesame seeds we're gonna take them just in case
today seems not to be my best day for shopping at Walmart but i stay hopeful and i say a little
prayer for G.od to help us find what we need as we still need some sesame seeds
and honey and all i'm finding so far for honey are these fancy spicy honey and bourbon honey
they are ten dollars canadian for a small bottle for us it is a no
because for Rosh Hashanah we try to avoid sharp tasting food but i'm curious would you invest
10 dollars in a small bottle just to try it let me know in the comments below
finally in the spice section we find the food number seven on our Rosh Hashanah list
some sesame seeds we eat sesame seeds because the word sesame seed is translated to Rubeyah
in the talmud which sounds like the word "yirbu" the word for increase so when we eat the sesame
seed we pray to G.od that our merits should increase like Rubeyah/ sesame seeds some Sephardim
have the minhag or tradition to eat black-eyed peas for the same reason in our family we stick
to the sesame seeds that we will cook with sugar to add extra sweetness to our merits and our year
we also need some 48 and 72 hours candlelights as we can not light a new fire on shabbat nor
on a jewish holiday we can transfer the fire ONLY on the holidays (NOT ON SHABBAT) from an existing
flame so what we do is after lighting the candles for the holidays we light the 48 or 72 hour candle
light this way the second night we can transfer the flame to the new wicks i will take a few
as often we forget to buy them and thank G.od we have many holidays coming up including Yom Kippur
Sukkot Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah so we will need many of them as i was looking for honey
i found my husband's favorite snacks sunflower seeds pumpkin seeds and watermelon seeds you
will not necessarily eat them for Rosh Hashanah but because i want to remind my hubby that i'm
thinking of him and i love him i will take a bag of each do you also think that telling your spouse
through little presents and special attention makes them know we love them and keeps the spark
alive let me know in the comments below finally after going around and around we get the honey
thank G.od that there was only one bottle left in the back back I feeel G.od kept it hidden for us
we will dip the apple in the honey as honey in hebrew is called d'vash and has a numerical
representation or gematria that is equivalent to Merciful Father and this is why while we are
eating the apple dipped in honey we pray to our Merciful Father to bless us with a sweet new year
as we were going out i saw boxes of dates the first one i saw was so dry and it had a lot of
powder at the bottom and if you have been with me for a little while you know that when you see
powder in the box it means that there's a very big chance there could be insects like what we
saw in our cake mix and i will leave the link to the video in the description box below and
the link above finally i find a box of medjoul dates and what i'm looking for
is a smooth skin with no black or white spots at the surface as often it means it is infested
and as you can see the pitted dates are not as pretty but thank G.od we found at least one box
that we are going to use for our Rosh Hashanah Seder ( Rosh Hashanah Celebration)
we go to the cash and the girls are the cutest little cashiers thank G.od , they completely
alleviated my stress because as you know self-service checkout is my frenemy as you saw
in my last Walmart video where it took me more than 20 minutes to scan my cart after
my daughters are done playing who can scan the fastest with the handheld scan i will stop at
one last store for the final food or item number eight we eat on Rosh Hashanah to have a great year
i will go to the kosher store to get the head of a sheep preferably or the head of a fish if we
cannot find the ladder we eat the head of a sheep or a fish on Rosh Hashanah so that we should be as
the head and not like the tale to serve G.od and to have a great year G.od willing as promised here
is how to open your pomegranate to avoid making a mess like i usually do and the owner of another
fruit store was so kind to show us how to do it once the man removed the top of the pomegranate
making sure not to cut through and through the top but leaving the middle section intact
he cuts alongside the white separation seen inside the pomegranate he then gave it to his wife
she simply opened it removed the center and separated the pomegranate in sections
and in the few minutes all the grains of the pomegranate were free
thank you again for the fruit merchant and his wife for their kindness
if you have a better way to open a pomegranate please let me know in the comments below
thank you for being here it means the world to me know that in my book you are like a friend we did
not see for a while but as soon as we see that friend it is like time stood still and we start
where we left off if you're still with me until the end please write in the comments I LOVE ROSH
HASHANAH so i know i was not alone i will wish you a shana tova a happy new year filled with love
laughter and above all peace and health if nobody told you today know that YOU ARE LOVED and YOU ARE
ENOUGH just the way you are until next time stay safe stay blessed and don't forget to FRUM IT
UP :) xoxoxox